Thoughts on the military and military activities of a diverse nature. Free-ranging and eclectic.

Friday, September 14, 2007

DOAB!

This is coolbert:

“From Russia - - With Love??!!”

From the Chicago Tribune the other day:

"Russia"

“Kremlin touts ‘dad of all bombs'"

“The Russian military has successfully tested what it describes as the world’s most powerful non-nuclear, air delivered bomb. Channel One television said Tuesday that the new weapon, nicknamed the ‘dad of all bombs,’ is four times more powerful than the U.S. ‘mother of all bombs.’ Unlike a nuclear weapon, the bomb doesn’t hurt the environment, an official said.”

Dad of all bombs [DOAB?] is obviously a take-off on the U.S.”mother of all bombs” [MOAB]. Largest non-nuclear bomb in the U.S. arsenal. MOAB was recently tested the U.S. Air Force. Dropped out the back of a C-130 transport aircraft, over the ocean. MOAB was TOO BIG to be tested on land. The Russian version evidently was tested on land, the Russians having a lot of vacant space within which to test !

NOT hurting the environment? Well, no residual radiation, that is true. This is a fuel-air-explosive [FAE] type weapon? The immediate area around the blast will be scorched, burnt, and rendered sterile!

What is the need for this type of weapon? A mere exhibition of the type of one-upmanship that the old Soviet Union and the U.S. military used to engage in? I cannot say!

"one-up·man·ship n. Informal "The art of outdoing or showing up a rival or competitor, as in exploits, privileges, or honors."

This too is good reading. Tsar Bomba [King of all Bombs] "Dropped by the Soviet way back in 1961. A hydrogen bomb down-sized to 57 megatons from the intended 100 megatons. The largest man-made detonation ever by far!

I recall this event well. The common folks all thought that this was a prelude to all-out nuclear war at some point in the near future [back in 1961]. Bigger and bigger bombs that would eventually be used, the end of mankind being the result!

"The bomb, weighing 27 tonnes, was so large (8 meters long by 2 m in diameter) that the Tu-95V had to have its bomb bay doors and fuselage fuel tanks removed."

Right, transported to the drop zone by a "Bear" Tu-95 that had to be specially modified just to carry the "King". The weapon could be carried and dropped from an aircraft, but only an aircraft that could NOT travel to the target many thousands of miles away without being modified in a way that would severely disrupt airplane aerodynamics and range.

[NOT a deliverable weapon in the commonly used sense of the word. The first U.S. hydrogen bomb detonation [1953] was again of a DEVICE that was not deliverable. ONLY a test of a concept that BECAME at some point a deliverable weapon.]